Nepali Crafts for Children

School-age children can explore our diverse planet by learning to make crafts that children in other parts of the world enjoy. Nepal is a particularly intriguing land that is not well-known. This small, mountainous kingdom lies tucked between India and China and has a rich culture and history. It consists largely of farming communities that have relatively little in material goods. Hence, making crafts is a large part of their daily lives. Children will enjoy discovering this beautiful country while making Nepali crafts.

Children in Nepal recycle everyday items to make many of the toys they play with. These include small play cat and dog stuffed-animals made from socks and other pieces of fabric and filled with small pebbles or beads. Other children can also craft these toys with some help from adults to sew and assemble them. Use socks to make the body and head of the stuffed toys and small buttons and pieces of wool string to make the face.

Camels and donkeys are a large part of the farming communities in Nepal. They are used to carry loads in the rugged terrain of the mountains. Children can make camel caravan mobiles by tracing small one-hump camels on paper. Have the children color and cut out the camels and glue them in a straight line on one to two pieces of string. The camel strings can then be hung from the ceiling to make a camel mobile.

Children in Nepal often devise games made from small sticks and round or flat stones. Have the children collect small sticks and stones and then paint or decorate them with faces and words. Help the children research the types of games Nepali children play and learn to play them with their sticks and stones.

Nepal contains some of the highest mountain peaks in the world, and many people in this country are proficient mountain climbers. Children can learn about Mount Everest and other mountain peaks in Nepal by making landscape murals. Have the students draw and paint large mountain ranges, climbers, mountain goats and clouds. They can then cut these items out and glue them on a large, two-dimensional landscape mural. Label the mural with the Nepalese names and words for the mountains and other objects. The children can make individual murals or one large mural for the entire class.